Chile’s aerospace history marked a new milestone when FASat-Delta was launched into orbit from the Vandenberg Base in California. The high-resolution satellite is co-owned by the Chilean Air Force (FACH) and ImageSat International (ISI).
The Chilean satellite was launched on Monday afternoon on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from the United States Space Force Base, and successfully uncoupled from the capsule that carried it.
FASat-Delta is a satellite platform developed by the Israeli company ImageSat International (ISI) and the US company Tyvak. This space system is located in the range of small satellites (SmallSat). It weighs 90kg and will be placed in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) of 550km.
Use of the satellite will be shared with ISI, and will complement Chile’s capacity to access information from space. In this context, our country will be able to acquire images from across the globe during each day that it is in operation.
FASat-Delta is part of the SNSat project, which will progressively incorporate 13 new satellites into its constellation. These systems will increase and diversify the information that our country can acquire from space. These data can be used for different applications, both in the civil sphere and in national defense.
The launch of FASat-Delta is a milestone that marks a new space era for Chile. It allows us to develop our own capacities for manufacturing satellites, and storing, processing and distributing geospatial information, both for academia and the public institutions that require it.
Some of the applications and benefits of FASat-Delta are:
- Agricultural studies
- Climate change strategies
- Disaster monitoring
- Information for observing the planet
- Satellite communications
- Obtaining images of better quality and greater quantity
- Water resource monitoring
- Expedite the search and rescue of missing people
- Space services
This is the first important milestone of the National Satellite System (SNSat), part of the National Space Program in which different institutions and academia participate.